Once again, Jill Criswell and her Frozen Sun Saga have left me in awe. I’m shocked, sad, and in serious need of the third and final book in this series! I had the pleasure of interviewing Jill for a second time as a follow-up to the highly anticipated sequel, Kingdom of Ice and Bone. We talk about new characters, writing challenges, and more! If you haven’t checked out her debut novel, Beasts of the Frozen Sun, stop now and do it! These books are cleverly written with a strong main character and a broody male hero that will steal your heart before you even know its gone!
Hi, Jill! Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Hi there! I’m the author of the Frozen Sun Saga, and I’m a teacher, a mom, and a total fantasy nerd. I’m a huge fan of all things Game of Thrones, the country of Iceland, and Viking lore. I also love to travel, and I can’t wait until this pandemic is over so I can take a much-needed road trip with my family.
Kingdom of Ice and Bone, the highly anticipated sequel to Beasts of the Frozen Sun, is out today! Can you tell us what it’s about?
Kingdom of Ice & Bone picks up where the first book left off, with Lira and Reyker separated and each thinking the other is dead.
Lira barely escaped from the vicious warlord Draki, who destroyed her village, and she owes her life to a host of vengeful gods; now, she’s struggling to control the dark powers they forced upon her.
Reyker was devoted to Lira after she saved his life. Now, he’s trying to find a way to protect her island from Draki, and the only way to do it is to pretend to be one of Draki’s loyal warriors.
Lira and Reyker find themselves in Iseneld, journeying across its frozen heart, unwittingly headed on a collision course with a monstrous goddess, and facing a terrible choice: to save their countries, they must lose each other and give up their souls to the dark gifts threatening to devour them.
What was the writing process like compared to your debut novel, Beasts of the Frozen Sun? Was it similar? Or did you run into new problems tackling this sequel?
Writing the sequel was definitely different. The first thing I did was re-read my first book and make a list of ideas and things that needed to be addressed/resolved. There were a lot of loose threads from the first book that had to be picked up in the second book, which was good and bad—it gave me a plan for moving the story forward, but tying up loose ends in a satisfying way is a challenge. It felt like playing a game sometimes: move Lira here in this chapter, move Reyker there in that chapter, with each move edging them closer toward the next major plot point and closer toward each other.
Who was your favourite character to write? And why?
So I love Lira and Reyker, obviously, but Draki really hooked me in the sequel. He finally gets his chance to show us he’s more than the cartoon villain he pretends to be—there’s depth to him that we didn’t get to see in the first book, and I really enjoyed fleshing out his character.
What was the hardest part to write?
For Kingdom of Ice & Bone, I wanted Lira and Reyker to travel to Reyker’s home country of Iseneld. I was dying to get them there. If I could have had my first sentence be “Lira and Reyker are now in Iseneld” and go from there, I would have. But as I’ve mentioned, there were so many loose threads from the first book that had to be resolved before that journey could happen. I’m not going to lie—writing Part One of the sequel was sometimes a slog for me. But with each new chapter I wrote, a clear path emerged, and in the end, I was pretty happy with how things were left on Glasnith.
What was your most favourite scene and why?
There are so many, but I really loved writing Lira’s journey across Iseneld to get to the Mountain of Fire. Iseneld is based on Iceland, which is my favorite travel destination, and writing Lira’s journey allowed me to relive my own travel experiences there and to include some of Iceland’s most iconic landmarks.
I loved being able to see Reyker’s homeland in this sequel and I really hope to see more of this world in general. Where will the final book take place? Will we see more of the Haunted Isles?
Absolutely! In the finale, we’re going to see more of the outer islands of Iseneld, including the Haunted Isles—which are going to live up to their name.
I loved Brokk’s character! He has such a boisterous personality which really offsets Reyker’s seriousness. He brought the humor and I loved his scenes. Will we see more of him coming into the third book?
Brokk really grew on me. In hindsight, I love that the first thing he says in the book is, “Paint me pink and call me a horse’s ass.” Yes, Brokk is going to be an important part of the third book. We’ll see more of his tenuous friendship with Reyker, and we’ll get to see him interact with Lira, too.
How do you choose who to kill in your books and how do you tackle writing those tough scenes?
When I started writing books, one of the things I thought about was how I hate it when authors pull punches by putting their characters in deadly situations but having them all survive. On the other hand, when a character dies in a way that feels inevitable, it carries power.
For example, the death of a major character at the end of Leigh Bardugo’s Crooked Kingdom. I was gutted by that. It hurt, but it was meaningful. That’s what I try to do with my characters. I don’t want to kill them off pointlessly, but sometimes a character’s death feels inevitable, and so I try to make that death have meaning. I want it to stick with the rest of the characters, and with the readers. If that death hurts, I know I’ve done it right.
What can we expect in the third and final book? Any hints?
The third book picks up three months after the second book ends. The story follows Lira and Reyker to see how they’ve changed since the climax of the second book. The big goal in the finale is to figure out how to kill the Dragon. But, as with the previous books, there’s going to be a cost to achieving that goal, and it might be more than our heroes are willing to pay.
Lastly, do you have any book or author recommendations for us? What are you reading right now?
Right now, I’m re-reading the amazing Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake because the book I’m working on next has a similar theme. Before that, I finished Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta, which I loved. Other favorite fantasy series of mine that people might not be aware of are the Given duology by Mindy McGinnis and the Traitor’s Circle by Erin Beaty.
